Home Run Derby

As he speaks, Ryan Howard does little half circles in his chair, spinning left and right, not impatient but not concealing that he’d rather be someplace else.

The line at his locker, a guy from L.A., another from New York, the usual handful from Philadelphia, all requesting the same few minutes, runs a little deeper these days. The Phillies, dead in July, have life in September, and Howard, their husky, 26-year-old first baseman, is the man with the paddles.

He has 57 home runs and 140 runs batted in, all from a sudden, violent, left-handed swing that is uncommonly efficient. Consequently, the Phillies are tied with the Dodgers in the National League wild-card race, with a roster that is, to be kind, in transition.

There are appointments to keep, as a teammate, shortstop Jimmy Rollins, reminds him with a handful of candy.

“Ooh, Swedish Fish?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Rollins says. “Keep your mouth from getting dry in the interviews.”

“Hitters’ meetin’?”

“Same as every day,” Rollins says.

And the half circles broaden to three-quarters.

“It’s a little taxing,” Howard says. “It is a little taxing, but it’s all expected. That’s the other side of what you do. When you come and play this game, that kind of comes along with it.”

In his first full major league season, he is four home runs from Roger Maris, which, eight years ago, would have been a pretty big deal.

And he could become, if one is to believe the various reports since, the first to reach 62 home runs without having shared a bathroom stall with Jose Canseco, accepted designer ointments from a rogue chemist, or had his body radically change within months of discovering his first weight room.

He has never testified before Congress, and his personal trainer has never been imprisoned. And not once has he played a professional baseball season without handing over at least one cup of urine to a testing administrator.

Aesthetically speaking, at 6 feet 4 and 250 pounds, he is thicker than a Pujols, slighter than an Ortiz. For the discussion of whether America is emotionally prepared to embrace another run at Maris, Howard probably can thank the commissioner, the players’ union and players who preceded him, some probably in his own clubhouse.

Not a few months before, Albert Pujols had been backed into the same dingy corner before a muscle strain stalled his home run momentum. Howard waves off the question.

He hit home runs as a 12-year-old just outside St. Louis, including one legendary shot a Philadelphia writer went back and stepped off at 430 feet. He hit home runs at Lafayette High. He hit them at Southwest Missouri State. He hit 46 in one minor league season. He came to the big leagues, hit 22 home runs in 88 games last season and was the National League rookie of the year.

It would make sense in any era of baseball but this one, where the affable and seemingly qualified Howard has become the bystander clipped by crimes against the pastime.

“I can tell you he doesn’t like it,” said Phillies relief pitcher Geoff Geary, who shares a locker wall with Howard and was his roommate in the minor leagues. “But he can’t control it.... It’s part of the deal, the card he’s been handed. He’s done a great job dealing with it.”

Jim Thome, traded last November by the Phillies to the Chicago White Sox because there was no holding off Howard, shook his head gravely.

“We get tested,” he said, firmly. “That’s never crossed my mind with him. And I know him.... He’s done it the right way. He’s a good kid. You should get to know him and learn that. People should.”

The chair spins this way, then that way. The Swedish Fish are disappearing in short leaps from his hand to his mouth.

Howard grew up a Cardinals fan, he says, but worshiped the great left-handed hitters of his day: Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr. and Tony Gwynn. He was drawn by the power and speed of Bonds and Griffey, the ingenuity of Gwynn.

Of them, the Gwynn influence is perhaps the most apt, for Howard has hit about half of his home runs to the left of center field. When his swing gets untrustworthy, it is that fundamental -- tracking the pitch longer, staying inside the ball, redirecting the outside sliders and fastballs -- that rights him.

“Slow down,” Manager Charlie Manuel will remind him. “Stay on the ball.”

So the home runs arrive, five in April, 13 in May, nine in June, eight in July, 14 in August (when he also had 41 RBIs), eight in September. He is batting .312. His on-base percentage is .414. He won the home run derby at the All-Star game in Pittsburgh with ridiculous ease, mostly driving the ball to center and right fields.

“Unbelievable power,” said a major league scout. “Absolutely unbelievable power. It’s as good as anybody in the game. Incredible torque in his swing, the ball jumps off his bat, and sounds different when it does.”

The Phillies returned from their weekend sweep of the Houston Astros, all but finishing the season of another wild-card contender, to play the Chicago Cubs. Howard did not hit the ball out of the infield in his next six plate appearances. He struck out in three of them, his 165th, 166th and 167th strikeouts. In the fifth, again channeling Gwynn, he poked a Wade Miller curveball into left field, away from a defense shifted hard to the right side.

When David Dellucci doubled into left-center field, Howard pounded around the bases and scored with a belly flop.

“I would watch Gwynn when I was younger as far as him being a good contact hitter,” Howard says. “And I always thought to myself, you can’t hit home runs or anything without making contact. The most important thing is making contact first and everything else will kind of take care of itself. But as far as the opposite field, I try to hit the ball everywhere.”

A fastball at a time, he has learned to turn on the inside pitch, his development traveling the opposite path of most power hitters. It delivered him ahead of most, however, reaching 50 home runs in a season at an age younger than the likes of Bonds, Griffey, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, just behind Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Jimmie Foxx, and at the same age as Maris. Hank Aaron never hit 50 in a season.

“Only time will tell as far as his career goes,” teammate Jeff Conine said. “Just in my short time here, judging on makeup and performance, we’re seeing the start of something great.”

Despite national insinuations otherwise (baseball does not test for human growth hormone), Philadelphians chant “MVP!” during his at-bats, and his popularity is beginning to rival -- or surpass -- that of 76ers guard Allen Iverson and Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

He stands in the middle of a debate, whether 61 home runs are what they used to be, before McGwire and Sosa passed Maris, before Bonds passed them.

Cubs Manager Dusty Baker, who managed two of the three, was asked this week if 61 was “still a magical number.”

“The magic number is 73,” he said. “Ain’t it 73? Magic numbers change. And you can’t take away Sammy and 66. McGwire and what?”

Seventy.

“Seventy.”

Asked if any are of significance to him, Howard shakes his head.

“No, no, no,” he says. “Our focus right now is to get into the playoffs.”

Someday, though ...

“It’d be cool, but right now that’s not my focus,” he says. “I think everybody would like to have a record at some point. Right now, it’s not the focus. I mean, if it is to be, then it will be.”

But he is capable, one day, 74 ...

“I haven’t even thought about it,” he says. “That’s a lot of home runs.”

The last Swedish Fish disappears. He swivels his chair one final time.

He is young. He is still learning. He has already done 57, at least ...

“You never know,” he says. “You never know.”

tim.brown@latimes.com

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Superb start

Ryan Howard has hit more home runs in his first 1,000 at-bats than any player in major league history (with seasons played and career home runs; Howard’s numbers are through 899 at-bats):

*--* HR Player Seasons Career 81 Ryan Howard 2004-06 -- 76 Cecil Fielder 1985-98 319 75 Jim Gentile 1957-66 179 74 Rudy York 1934-48 277 74 Ken Phelps 1980-90 123 72 Eric Davis 1984-2001 282 71 Don Mincher 1960-72 200 71 Bob Horner 1978-88 218 71 Mark McGwire 1986-2001 583 68 Rob Deer 1984-96 230

*--*

*

PROFILE

* Age: 26.

* Birthplace: St. Louis.

* Ht-Wt.: 6-4, 250.

* Bats: Left. * Throws: Left.

* College: Southwest Missouri State.

* Key stats: Leads majors in HRs (57), RBIs (140) and total bases (367).

Source: Bill Deane/baseballanalysts.com

*

The big man

A look at Ryan Howard’s numbers (through Wednesday):

*--* Month AB R H HR RBI AVG SLG April 85 12 26 5 12 306 494 May 102 17 29 13 35 284 696 June 100 13 28 9 21 280 630 July 86 16 23 8 19 267 593 Aug. 112 25 39 14 41 348 750 Sept. 63 18 26 8 12 413 889 Totals 548 101 171 57 140 312 670

*--*

*

Where Howard ranks among the National League leaders (through Tuesday):

*--* Category Rank No. Home runs 1st 57 Runs batted in 1st 140 Total bases 1st 365 Slugging pct. 2nd 671 Int. walks 2nd 28 Extra-base hits 2nd 80 Game-winning RBIs T4th 15 Go-ahead RBIs T4th 30 Multi-hit games T5th 55 OBP 6th 414 Walks 7th 93 Batting average 7th 313

*--*

Source: MLB.com